Did TJ release the stats of admission by middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't this happen to the top HS in San Francisco? (the previous #1 HS in the country)... they got rid of merit based requirements, now they are not even in the top 100. It depends on what the leaders want I suppose, a diversified school with access to all or a merit based school.

Not exactly the same thing. In fact, it was very different. TJ selects top students from schools throughout the county whereas Lowell went lottery and unlike TJ that was abandoned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't this happen to the top HS in San Francisco? (the previous #1 HS in the country)... they got rid of merit based requirements, now they are not even in the top 100. It depends on what the leaders want I suppose, a diversified school with access to all or a merit based school.

Not exactly the same thing. In fact, it was very different. TJ selects top students from schools throughout the county whereas Lowell went lottery and unlike TJ that was abandoned.

The school board members who got rid of merit in favor of a lottery at Lowell were recalled and the school has reverted to merit-based admissions this fall.

Just as those members were recalled, School Board members in FCPS who watered down TJ and are seeking re-election should be replaced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't this happen to the top HS in San Francisco? (the previous #1 HS in the country)... they got rid of merit based requirements, now they are not even in the top 100. It depends on what the leaders want I suppose, a diversified school with access to all or a merit based school.

Not exactly the same thing. In fact, it was very different. TJ selects top students from schools throughout the county whereas Lowell went lottery and unlike TJ that was abandoned.

The school board members who got rid of merit in favor of a lottery at Lowell were recalled and the school has reverted to merit-based admissions this fall.

Just as those members were recalled, School Board members in FCPS who watered down TJ and are seeking re-election should be replaced.

Oh, I see the problem. The FCPS board members actually eliminated the test buying that had tainted TJ admissions in favor of a merit-based system that allows all residents to participate not just those able to afford expensive outside enrichment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Do you have a source for this because I heard the opposite?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Do you have a source for this because I heard the opposite?

Oh, VDOE provides all this data in their SOL results website. Just google ‘VDOE SOL Results’ and it should be pretty easy to find. SOL results have always been publicly available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

So you can see that as a sharp decline due to the change in admissions, if you look at the scores on a vacuum. Or you could look more broadly and see that there are steep declines all across the state. Even TJ is not immune to the pandemic and the effects of it.

Or you can use this data as an indictment of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

So you can see that as a sharp decline due to the change in admissions, if you look at the scores on a vacuum. Or you could look more broadly and see that there are steep declines all across the state. Even TJ is not immune to the pandemic and the effects of it.

Or you can use this data as an indictment of students.

DP. You asked for data, and you got it. Now you want to explain it away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

The decline is due to changes in the SOL test. The scoring is completely different than it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

I think it may be worse than you describe here. You didn’t include geometry for the newer scores. Those scores are worse than many middle school averages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

pettifogger wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or get spanked by the voters (parents) which I highly doubt.

If it's really as bad as everyone says it is, then the School Board elections should go overwhelmingly in the conservatives' favor.

My guess is that most parents are not nearly as unhappy as the very small subsegment of folks who comment on this board alongside the very vocal superminority on Twitter.

Not to mention the folks that were nominated for the School Board on that side are so far outside the mainstream of Fairfax County education policy as to be unrecognizable - and that several are running with the express intent of financially kneecapping the public school system....

Prepare to be disappointed. Become a serious party if you intend to create change.

I don't know or really care about party affiliation, but if education is a priority, one should be taking a close look at those who actively teach. For instance, Peter Gabor (https://petergabor.org/) is a TJ teacher, majored in math from MIT, has a phD in computer science from Princeton, and taught and is still teaching at TJ for many years. This is promising to see, because we really need more actual teachers running for the school board who have deep content expertise and are actually close to the students and the learning.

WaPo posted all the candidates running here. If folks want to vote for meaningful change, they should be closely studying this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/07/fairfax-county-school-board-election-guide/

Agree he is impressive.
But eventually they will come for him.
Maybe not this year, but as standards for TJ admissions relax to deliver the desired equitable outcomes, his standards and rigor of his course will follow by necessity or he will leave. It’s that simple. It’s how they will kill the “elite TJ model”. And it’s a feature, not a bug. Equitable doesn’t mean fair shot—it means same outcome. Equity doesn’t simply elevate the disadvantaged. It dilutes the exceptional. And, by design, it turns everything into mediocre.

The standards have gone down over the past two decades to accommodate the lower-caliber students who used prep to appear gifted. I'm actually hoping the new process helps reverse the trend by favoring naturally gifted students.

Unfortunately the new admissions has resulted in selecting kids who perform academically worse in every measurable way than many students not selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to measure natural giftedness?

I get that you prefer a system that is easily gamed but the new process has had the opposite effect. The newest crop of students are performing far better than those admitted under the old system and the school environment is less toxic too.

I understand you can’t answer the question. Can you explain how you are measuring their performance you claim is “far better?” Because all the measurements indicate otherwise.

You are the one claiming things have gotten worse. I haven't seen a shred of real evidence to that effect just some bitter parents who miss being able to buy their way in. Please show me tangible proof that TJ is worse off now that kids from schools other than the most wealthy have a shot at admission.

This years Math and Science SOL scores may be the worst ever at TJ.

Science is 100% and math is 99 straight from VDOE. What's the issue? English is 98.5 but that makes a lot of sense assuming some exceptionally gifted ELL kids are now being accepted.

You have to drill down and look at the pass advanced rates, which are quite low for a school like TJ.

Lower than previous years? What have the last 10 years looked like.

VDOE has previous results here, under the School-Test-By-Test entries. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/data-policy-funding/data-reports/statistics-reports/sol-test-pass-rates-other-results
As a data point, TJ had the following pass advanced rates for the 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 school years.
Algebra II: 89, 94, 94
Chemistry: 87, 91, 94
World History II: 85, 82, 78

VDOE shows the following pass advanced rates for the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 years:
Algebra II: 63, 53, 58
Chemistry: - , 52, -
WH II: -, 53, 28

It's a pretty sharp decline.

I think it may be worse than you describe here. You didn’t include geometry for the newer scores. Those scores are worse than many middle school averages.

Some of those students have gone back to the base school. It could also reflect some of the new students coming from Prince William who were very unprepared after Covid but their district let them into TJ anyway.